Nina's Story - What's all this about running in the desert?

The "Saharawis", "Western Sahara", the "Polisario", "Tindouf Refugee Camps"... many, especially in the English-speaking world, know very little if anything about any of the above. Who are the Saharawis, where on earth is Tindouf and what daft adventure has Nina got herself into this time, you may ask. Admittedly, despite having studied some Spanish history, professing an active interest in North Africa and the small fact that I'm studying for a Masters in Migration Studies, I too knew very little about the Saharawi refugees and their plight until recently. What I have learnt from Danielle of Sandblast (the charity we are running for) and Salah, a Saharawi athlete who I had the honour of meeting a couple of times in Brighton earlier this year, as well as some of my own reading for my course, has had a profound impact on me.

Close to 200,000 refugees "living" in a barren and desolate corner of the inhospitable Sahara Desert in Algeria for over 30 years - yes, you read correctly, two hundred thousand people and thirty years - on the wrong side of a 2,500km fortified wall, guarded by some 5 million land mines and 100,000 less-than-friendly Moroccan soldiers; unable to return to their homeland, dependent upon aid for survival and struggling to maintain their rich cultural heritage, language and identity, banished to a dusty, dry and desolate corner of a world that has forgotten them. Caught your attention? It certainly caught mine, and that is only half the story. What about those who didn't or couldn't flee in 1975 when, following the Spanish withdrawal from their colonial occupation, the Moroccan soldiers came marching into Western Sahara to assert their "sovereignty" over the region? Outnumbered by settlers, forbidden from manifesting their identity or freely expressing themselves either in their own language or in Spanish, or freely expressing themselves at all for that matter, and with little freedom of movement, they are the oppressed minority in their own territory. Many NGOs and international organizations, including the UN and Amnesty International amongst others, have expressed concern over human rights abuses in the occupied Western Sahara, including frequent "disappearances", cases of torture, arbitrary imprisonment and lack of freedom of expression.

So what are we doing about it? Sarah, Moera and I, along with a group from Sandblast and many other participants from all over the world, are going to spend a week in the refugee camps in that forgotten corner of Algeria from the 19th February 2010, to experience for ourselves the plight of the Saharawi people, manifest our solidarity for their cause and most importantly, to help give them a voice in a world that finds it all too easy to push this situation under the carpet and hope that by doing so it will go away. We are going to be running a half marathon (that's 21km!!) in the desert around the camps on the 23rd Feb, as part of the International Sahara Marathon, organized annually by the Saharawi government-in-exile in the camps, in aid of the Saharawi refugees and with the purpose of improving conditions for the people who are struggling to make some kind of life for themselves in the camps.

We are asking you to set aside even the smallest amount of all that Christmas and January Sales cash to help us raise as much money as possible for Sandblast and for the refugees themselves, who benefit immensely from the fantastic work carried out by Danielle and her team. Your money will help fund artistic and cultural projects in the camps, promoting collaboration and exchange between the Saharawis and artists worldwide, promoting freedom of expression and preservation of the unique Saharawi language, artistic and musical heritage, giving these forgotten people back their voice. To donate, please go to www.justgiving.com/ninakmurray

To learn more about the Saharawis, Sandblast and the International Sahara Marathon, you might like to take a look at some of the following links. Stay tuned to our blog to keep up to date with our training efforts, preparation, fundraising and to read our diary entries from Algeria when we get there!

www.sandblast-arts.org - Sandblast Home Page

www.forcedmigration.org/guides/fmo035/ - Forced Migration Online Research on Western Sahara

www.saharamarathon.org - Official Webpage of the Int'l Sahara Marathon

I'd like to give a special mention to Gap Adventures (www.gapadventures.com) and Planeterra (www.planeterra.org) who have promised us their support and some help with fundraising; and to the MA Migration Studies class of 2009-10 at Sussex University for their support as well.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, even if you don't make a donation, just through raising awareness of the plight of the Saharawis we are making a difference, but I do hope you will dig into your pockets for even a few pounds to put towards a very worthy cause. Please feel free to forward the link to our donation page to all your friends and family and anyone you think might be interested in contributing.

M'aa el-salama!

Nina